Posted on 12/09/2005 5:32:05 AM PST by Esther Ruth
U.N. official calls visit 'heartbreaking' By Betsy Pisik THE WASHINGTON TIMES December 9, 2005
NEW YORK -- The U.N. official in charge of humanitarian relief yesterday described a four-day visit to Zimbabwe as "heartbreaking" and expressed frustration with the government's handling of crises in food, housing and AIDS.
Although the government of President Robert Mugabe had begun to erect permanent shelters and seek outside assistance, aid director Jan Egeland said the effort was far too little to accommodate the desperation he saw in the cities of Harare and Bulawayo.
"Zimbabwe is in a deep crisis," Mr. Egeland told reporters. "There are millions of people with their backs to the wall trying to feed themselves."
Inflation is up to 400 percent, while food stocks in Zimbabwe, once the marketbasket of southern Africa, are dwindling. Power and water shortages are increasing. Life expectancy has dropped from 60 years to 32, Mr. Egeland said.
He described grandmothers caring for AIDS orphans, and families living in open fields and in shelters fashioned out of branches and plastic sheeting. Still others have crowded into the homes of friends or family, creating desperate health and sanitation conditions.
The United Nations put up tents, but the government tore them down in October, Mr. Egeland said, because the tents created the appearance of a crisis.
Additionally, U.N. and other aid groups have been unable to penetrate overlapping layers of red tape to deliver emergency supplies and erect tents and sanitation.
"At the speed they have now, it will take decades to put people in permanent shelter," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Zimbabwe....The Leftist paradise...The UN plan for all of humanity...
excerpt...
Mr. Mugabe, who has ruled since 1980, denies that his policies are responsible for an economic collapse that has saddled Zimbabwe's 12 million people with shortages of food, fuel and housing.
The 81-year-old leader blames Western opponents for sabotaging the economy.
Mr. Egeland said he has met with donors to assure them they are helping the people of Zimbabwe, not the government. The United Nations has appealed for $276 million, for emergency assistance, and expects to be feeding 3 million people until the April harvests.
Human rights groups repeatedly have criticized the increasingly harsh Mugabe regime, in power for 25 years.
"Zimbabwe's blocking of humanitarian assistance for its displaced population is unconscionable," Human Rights Watch Africa Director Peter Takirambudde said earlier this month.
"Such actions threaten the very survival of these people."
the un crying about zimbabwe is akin to a murderer putting flowers on his victims grave. this group has balls, ill give them that much.
Isn't it great now that the evil whites that ran the place are out of power and its under black rule?
The Southern African states are all doing so much better since the white man has been kicked out of office.
Its time to stop funding the madness. Let Africa stand or fall on it's own.
Mugabe was the darling of Western liberals when he came in. They must be very proud of their protege. At least the starving Zimbabweans have the satisfaction of knowing that the evil Anglo-Saxons no longer own the farms. That has to be a comfort to them in their despair.
Didn't Jan Egeland call us cheap after the tsunami while our Navy was rescuing people en masse?
In a related story, Democrats criticized the notion that the UN needed to be reformed.
Not appropriate.
By definition, the creators of the crisis cannot "handle" it.
Frustration that morons can't do calculus is simply an expression of one's own stupidity, nothing more.
china does not view this as a tragedy in any sense of the word. any nation that condones throwing live baby girls into rivers because they were born the wrong sex surely could care less if a few tribesmen starve to death at the altat of socialism.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1534721/posts
wage diplomatic battle on 'playing field' of Africa: report
DefenseTalk.com ^
Posted on 12/05/2005 11:58:02 PM CST by DTAD
WASHINGTON: China is challenging US interests and values in Africa, shielding "rogue states," trampling the environment and thwarting anti-corruption drives, according to a new independent survey of US policy on the continent.
Beijing and the United States are on opposite sides in a new struggle for influence and resources in the new "playing field" of Africa, the study by a non partisan task force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations found.
(Excerpt) Read more at defencetalk.com ...
Famine by socialism.
Oops, title got cut off while pasting...
US, China wage diplomatic battle on 'playing field' of Africa: report
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Tue, 6 Dec 2005, 00:07
WASHINGTON: China is challenging US interests and values in Africa, shielding "rogue states," trampling the environment and thwarting anti-corruption drives, according to a new independent survey of US policy on the continent.
Beijing and the United States are on opposite sides in a new struggle for influence and resources in the new "playing field" of Africa, the study by a non partisan task force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations found.
The communist giant has wielded its veto to frustrate United Nations Security Council sanctions against Sudan over Darfur, and is the "principal supporter" of vilified Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, the report said.
It would be wrong however, to describe Beijing as an "adversary" in Africa, the task force said, and a senior US official who recently returned from Beijing disputed the idea of a Sino-US race for influence.
China's rise posed three challenges to the United States in Africa, the report said, firstly over Beijing's "protection of rogue states like Sudan and Zimbabwe in the face of egregious human rights violations."
Beijing was also able to use its growing economic might to undermine US and Western efforts to use aid and investments to lever African governments to flush out corruption and embrace good governance.
Finally, the report unveiled at a briefing in a top Washington hotel Monday, said Chinese business practices created unfair competition to US firms in bidding for contracts.
"Zimbabwe is all but owned by China" the report by the US think-tank quoted a South African article as saying, though noted that Beijing had apparently rebuffed Mugabe's request for massive financial aid to meet loan payments.
Beijing is also accused of contributing to serious environmental damage by importing timber through unlicensed loggers who deprive governments of much needed revenue.
The task force also warned Chinese textiles exports to Africa were undermining local industry, and similar exports to the United States were undermining the African textiles sector.
Many US consumers hooked on cheap Chinese imports may beg to differ with those findings however.
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer disputed the report's findings, saying she did not agree Washington and Beijing were locked in "direct competition" on the continent.
"I think that's a very small view of what is needed in Africa," Frazer said during a briefing for foreign reporters.
"I think that China has just as great a right to engage in Africa as any other country ... why should we see ourselves in competition with any country in Africa, there is enough good to be done?"
However, she did concede foreign policy disputes over Sudan and Zimbabwe.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.